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Fan rivalries are part and parcel of every sport. Cricket is no exception! During the early days, fan rivalries used to be against nations. Gavaskar and Border, Tendulkar and Lara, Gilchrist and Boucher, Murali and Warne – these are some famous rivalries across generations. As India, the cricket powerhouse started producing sheer talent and promoted them through its ranks to the playing XI; the fan rivalries started to decentralize between players from the Indian Cricket Team in itself! People began praying that Team India should win the match, but a certain Dhoni or a Kohli should be out without scoring a single run! This article is about the fan following Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli has and how big their rivalry is in ODI cricket.

Virat Kohli: 

The captain of the Indian Cricket Team was expected to perform well from a very young age. He was the captain of the U-19 Cricket team, which won the World Cup in 2008. Team India had recovered from the loss of the 50-over World Cup as they had won the 20-over World Cup under a young captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who preferred youngsters to senior players. So, the expectations on this young team were immense as people in India believed that India should never lose even a single game. Captain Virat Kohli had a great tournament, which he ended with 235 runs in 6 matches to his name at an average of 47. He gave a statement that he was there to stay. He got his debut match for the senior team in the same year and was asked to open the innings! He did not spend much time on the crease and scored a 22-ball 12. He was persisted with, and he scored 159 runs in 5 matches with one fifty at an average of 31.80, which impressed the then captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. As Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar returned in the later part of 2009, Virat Kohli was demoted to no.3 position to accommodate the stalwarts. This became a career-defining spot for Kohli, where he amassed more than 10,000 runs in 191 innings at an average of 62.44! He was part of the World Cup-winning team later on in 2011 and soon took over the captaincy from Mahendra Singh Dhoni to become the captain of the Indian Cricket Team.

Virat Kohli is not only a phenomenal batsman but also a player who loved giving it back on the field when sledded. He is aggressive and, a stark contrast to the previous captain, MS Dhoni, who was cool as a cucumber. People loved Virat's guts and his ability to give back everything that was dished out to him. Indian Cricket fans loved this quality of Virat. They even praised his showing of the middle finger to the Australian fans in Australia. Come IPL, and he started giving back to the same fans' favorite teams, but this time from the opposing side. Now, people began to hate Virat for the same thing, but Virat had not changed. His passion for the team he is playing never changes to date! His aggression shows how passionate he is, be it for the Indian Cricket Team, Royal Challengers Bangalore, or even his Ranji team, Delhi. Simultaneously, as Virat started gathering haters, a Superstar in Rohit Sharma was rising slowly.

Rohit Sharma:

Rohit Sharma's career can be split into two parts – Before opening the Innings and After opening the Innings. Rohit Sharma was also a product of U-19 cricket, only that he was senior to Kohli by two years in terms of his cricketing career. He played the 2006 edition of the U-19 World Cup, in which India lost in the final to Pakistan badly. He had a decent U-19 WC in which he scored 205 runs in 6 matches at an average of 41. He was touted to be the next big thing in Indian Cricket, and he made his debut against Ireland in 2007 under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid, a year before the name Kohli was known to the world. Unfortunately, he did not get a chance to put on his pads in that match.  He was consistently given an opportunity in the Indian Cricket Team as each, and every captain reiterated that his talent was immense. Even though he was not performing poorly, fans started to complain about his presence in the team and how promising talents were not getting chances only because of Rohit Sharma. Adding fire to the fuel, the media also questioned his selection. His average was not bad even then; he had played 76 innings with an average of 31.43. He had scored 1949 runs with the highest score of 114. But then the then captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, did something which changed his career. He gave him the career-defining opening slot along with Shikhar Dhawan, and the two started something magical. Even though he briefly opened the innings in 2011, his opening spot was confirmed in 2013. He began to open the innings again in 2013 against England in India. It was a mid-series decision, and he replaced Ajinkya Rahane as the Indian opener. He scored a 93-ball 83 and showed he could open. His next innings was not so memorable. Then came his career-defining tournament – The ICC Champions Trophy 2013.

Rohit opened along with Shikhar Dhawan during the ICC Champions Trophy, in which the openers had a great tournament. Rohit scored 177 runs in 5 matches at an average of 35.40 with two fifties, while Shikhar Dhawan won the golden bat in the tournament. India decided to persist with the two openers, and they were rewarded for it in the subsequent series. Even though runs were flowing from Rohit's bat, there were no big scores. Everyone knew it was just a matter of time before it came. Boy, it came at the right time against the greatest team in the World – Australia. He scored a 141* and a 209 in the same series to stamp his arrival in style. Later, he scored a 264 and a 208*, both against Sri Lanka in different years, to show that he is one of the best in the business. As he rose in his stature in the Indian Cricket Team, fans started pouring their love. His nickname changed from "Maggi" Rohit to "Hitman" Rohit. Now, he is ranked no.3 in the ODI batsmen, just below Kohli. He started to captain the IPL team, Mumbai Indians, for which he has been prolific, and people have now called out for him to become the captain of the Indian Cricket Team as he has won the trophy with MI five times now.

The fans argue about who is the best batter among the two now and who should be the captain of the Indian Cricket Team. We are here to analyze both and end this debate once for all. As Rohit Sharma fans say that his career should be defined post him opening the batting, we will ignore all stats before it and consider only the matches in which Rohit has opened when compared with Kohli.

Overall Comparison:

Winning Contributions:

Winning Contributions while Batting first:

Winning Contributions while Batting second:

In Home Matches:

Winning Contributions in Home Matches (In Matches Won):

Winning Contribution at Home batting first:

Winning Contribution at Home batting second:

In Away & Neutral Matches:

Winning Contributions in Away & Neutral Matches (In Matches Won):

Winning Contribution at Away & Neutral Matches batting first:

Winning Contribution at Away & Neutral Matches batting second:

What do the Stats mean:

From the above stats, we can say one thing for sure – both are phenomenal players and deserve to be among the top in the ranking of modern-day batsmen. While Rohit shines in home conditions and punishes visiting teams brutally, Kohli just knocks off teams at their homes where they shine! That doesn't mean Rohit performs only at home conditions and Kohli performs only away from home. Both have an exceptional record everywhere, only that Rohit outshines Kohli at home and Kohli is ahead of Rohit away from home. While chasing, Kohli is the King, and the numbers explain why. Batting first is Rohit's forte as he scores big scores and demoralizes the opponents. Overall, as the average explains, Kohli has been slightly better than Rohit in batting and stepping up for the team when needed. However, there are slight concerns about Virat not performing in ICC events and Rohit doing the same. So, let's look at that below:

ICC Events:

ICC Events Winning Contribution:

ICC Events Knockouts Contribution:

As evident from the stats above, when it comes to ICC events, Rohit trumps Kohli. However, Kohli scores more runs in winning matches than Rohit. In other words, the contribution of Virat for winning is more. That being said, it is evident that there is pressure around Virat in Knockout matches, and he eventually bottles up while Rohit steps up to the challenge. So, the claim of fans who say Virat is not playing well in knockouts might be valid! However, let us look at this from a different angle:

  ICC Knockouts Contribution in Wins: